Delhi: Two-year wait ends for woman whose son was sold off

The woman’s ordeal began when she was hospitalised for a nerve-related illness two years ago. Unable to foot the bill, her husband sold their son to a man in Old Delhi, and the toddler eventually reached the couple’s home.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the woman said: “I’ve got my son back after two years, but he was scared of me and kept crying for the other woman, his ‘new mother’. Police told me I should allow him to meet the woman, who has now filed a case against me. But he is my son, my blood, and I will not allow him to leave me.”

Police said the woman’s husband has been arrested. “The woman claims her husband assaulted their son on multiple occasions and had threatened to abandon the child in the past,” an officer said.

According to the woman, her husband sold the boy to a disabled man, telling his wife that she could visit him whenever she wanted. After being discharged from the hospital, she went to find her son but couldn’t. Every day for two years, she walked using a crutch, with her son’s photograph in her hand, but returned home empty handed.

“I cried for months. His clothes were still with me — a constant reminder of what my husband did,” the woman said.

The woman contacted Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal during her recent padyatra, and narrated her ordeal, following which local police were contacted.

After making local inquiries, police managed to trace the man who the boy had been sold to. They then tracked the boy, who was found to be living in a scrapyard with his new parents.

His mother said: “My son did not speak to me for three days. He thought I was a stranger. After I fed him milk and some roti, we became friends. His new parents used to feed him hotel food and he keeps crying for that. I have to make do with dal and roti.”